Ian Baraclough claims top-scorer Anthony Elding is going nowhere and will stay at Sligo Rovers for the season despite speculation linking him with a move away.

The big Englishman made a stunning start to life in the League of Ireland when scoring 10 goals in his first 10 league games but has not hit the net in the top flight since April.

Linked with Limerick in this transfer window, he only returned from a four-game ban as a sub in Friday's shock 3-1 defeat away to Cork City that dealt a blow to Sligo's title hopes.

And David McMillan's arrival from UCD last week merely cast even more doubt over his future with the champions who also have Danny North and Raffaele Cretaro as striking options.

But Baraclough said: "Why would I want to push one of the top scorers in the league to one side? I don't understand the speculation. I'll finish it now - Anthony is not going anywhere.

"He is with us until the end of the season. It is baffling to me and I know it could be upsetting to the player. I've spoken to him and the fact is that David McMillan has come in to enhance the group and not to push anybody out.

"I thought we were one striker short so there is nothing sinister in it at all." Baraclough was also in for Libya international and former Derry City ace Eamon Zayed before he joined rivals Shamrock Rovers but the Bit O'Red boss insists it's not a blow to lose out.

He said: "David was my first choice and I was delighted to get him and I was surprised that we didn't have to wrangle too much with UCD.

"You've got to speak to a few [targets] because someone might come in and offer silly money for your players and clubs like us can't afford to turn that away.

"You've got to have plates spinning and things on the boil. You've got to have things lined up to go and replace players, if they move on."

But Baraclough admits he has a job on his hands to keep all of his strikers - Elding, North, Cretaro and McMillan - happy for the rest of the season.

"They will all push each other on as they are all different types of players which is the beauty of it," he said.